Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Do You Have A Secret ??

"Frank Warren's Postcard project taps into the part of each of us that needs to share; to confess. The project balances perfectly on the line between art andpsychology." - Anne C. Fisher

I came across Warren's unique project the other day. He's inviting strangers to anonymously send him postcards plastered with their innermost secrets. The project is currently being displayed at Fisher's gallery in Maryland. I'm not sure if the project is entertaining (one postcard states, "In 4th grade my friend made me laugh so hard that I actually pooped my pants") or creepy (another confesses, "I was hospitalized because I thought my dad was the Hillside Strangler") but either way, it's certainly intriguing. It made me think of secrets that I have in my life and things that I would want to confess to a total stranger, several thousand people actually, given the new popularity of the project's site. I couldn't think of one...

One of the highlights of the collection is the below postcard that had been defaced during a recent display. Warren tells us that this card and its graffiti demonstrate two themes that continue to appear throughout the project: "Many of the secrets that we keep are not as strange or shameful as we imagine."

Does sharing a secret this way have a healing effect, a type of indirect therapy? I would suppose that the experience would be similar to that of going to confession. You know that the priest wouldn't be able to reveal anything that you tell him, but I'm sure that you would become unburdened in some way knowing that because you have told at least one person, your issue could no longer be considered a "secret."

Hmmm...maybe I'll send in a postcard of my own someday. If you have a secret you'd like to share, write it on a 4x6 postcard and mail it to:

PostSecret

13345 Copper Ridge Road

Germantown, MD 20874

Warren asks that your contribution be brief, legible, and creative, like the one below which made me chuckle...